Author Topic: Brave: A new browser with built-in adblock and payment solutions (Read 77891 times)

kyrathaba · « **Reply #25 on:** June 08, 2018, 07:30 AM »

I'm with Edvard and Deozaan. I REALLY like Brave.

Brave: A new browser with built-in adblock and payment solutions

Deozaan · « **Reply #26 on:** June 08, 2018, 01:42 PM »

I'm with Edvard and Deozaan. I REALLY like Brave.
-kyrathaba (June 08, 2018, 07:30 AM)

Whoa there! I wouldn't say I REALLY like Brave. I like the idea(s) behind it, but I don't feel it is well enough developed yet to fully make the switch. I primarily use Vivaldi on my PC these days. But I do use Brave as my primary browser on Android.

And I get the feeling that Edvard isn't too impressed with Brave, either:

I've been using Brave for a while now, as it is VERY fast and does adblocking very well. I agree it has some glitches that I'd rather not deal with.

[...]

Well, after putting it all on one page, I think I'm done. Vivaldi is looking better lately...
-Edvard (February 12, 2018, 12:55 PM)

Edvard · « **Reply #27 on:** June 13, 2018, 07:45 PM »

...
And I get the feeling that Edvard isn't too impressed with Brave, either:
...
-Deozaan (June 08, 2018, 01:42 PM)

Heh, after all that and I'm still using Brave as my main browser. Little things get fixed here and there, let's see what works now:

...
- Can't edit the default page shortcuts. There are 'x's to delete them, but it doesn't do anything. You click it, and a dialog comes up that says "Thumbnail removed" but it's still there. Some discussion on the Brave forum about it, and it's apparently on the list as something that needs to be fixed.
-Edvard (February 12, 2018, 12:55 PM)

Those have been replaced by "Top Sites" tiles. Still not as useful as say, Opera or Vivaldi's bookmark tiles on the new tab page, but at least you can remove them now. The dialog when you remove is sort of clunky. You hit the 'X' on the tile, the tile goes away, then Brave tells you it has been deleted, but you can Undo, Remove All, or X to dismiss the notification. It's a little jarring because it's a departure from the standard "Are you sure you want to delete that" dialog, but eh...

- No 'History' item in the settings dialogs (that I could find, anyway). I have to enter "about:history" in the address bar.
- Embedded YouTube videos can't be full-screened. The video enlarges but the window stays the same size. Very curious.
- Sometimes (maybe once or twice a week) it "loses" CSS; I hit the 'back' button and suddenly I'm in 1994 with no font colors.

All these have been fixed as far as I can tell. At least I haven't had the "missing CSS" thing happen for awhile now.

- Sometimes I can't input text anywhere; the address bar, forum posting, information form filling, nothing. I have to restart the browser.

This still happens from time to time, but it may be my Desktop Environment (running Xfce on Debian 'Testing'), because I've noticed it happening with other windows every now and then, but not even half as many times as with Brave. I figured out all it takes is Minimizing and Restoring the window instead of restarting the browser. Maybe it's time to try out a new DE...

Well, after putting it all on one page, I think I'm done. Vivaldi is looking better lately...

I still use Vivaldi occasionally, but it's still just as gawd-awful slow to start up as the first time I tried it. Just for giggles, I tried timing all the browsers I have installed. Firefox is the slowest to start at ~16 seconds from click to full window showing. Vivaldi is half that; 8 seconds. Chromium takes ~6 seconds, and Brave is ~2 seconds.

So all in all, I am happier with Brave, and it's still the main browser on my phone. My wife and I have very old and cheap smartphones, and all the browsers we tried would crash on half the sites because of it. Brave never crashes on our phones. Ever. *slow clap*

allen · « **Reply #28 on:** June 13, 2018, 11:59 PM »

Brave has really come a long way since its early days, it's sufficient (if elegant and understated). Vivaldi is a better fit for me, but that's me.

I kind of roll my eyes at their creator payment system, I don't think it'll go anywhere but it's a nice idea.

As someone who works in digital marketing/advertising, I'm torn between the appeal of anonymity and just having everything out there so I can observe the marketing/remarking. One thing that's really interesting to me is that the comfort that comes from running a browser that claims first class tracker blocking really creates a false reassurance. The good it serves is shutting down some truly bad-agents -- but it hardly slows down the really big agents. First-party data is still being tracked, that data is still being shared with big data brokers, and then being-reshared with other really big agents.

You can still search for a place in Liberia on Google, land on Air BNB, be served ads for Liberia BNBs on Facebook and then served ads elsewhere for the same content... Truly hiding requires a ton of inconvenience - VPN, kill cookies... ya'll know the drill.

Anyway, I've been running a little experiment lately, running Chrome/Vivaldi/Brave in tandem and recording my web experience.

Sorry for rambling. All I really wanted to say was first time I tried Brave, it was terrible. It's pretty good, now. I'd take it over Safari, IE or Firefox and it has potential to compete with vivaldi for casual browsing. As a developer, Chrome/Vivaldi are necessary.

wraith808 · « **Reply #29 on:** June 14, 2018, 09:07 AM »

As someone who works in digital marketing/advertising, I'm torn between the appeal of anonymity and just having everything out there so I can observe the marketing/remarking. One thing that's really interesting to me is that the comfort that comes from running a browser that claims first class tracker blocking really creates a false reassurance. The good it serves is shutting down some truly bad-agents -- but it hardly slows down the really big agents. First-party data is still being tracked, that data is still being shared with big data brokers, and then being-reshared with other really big agents.
-allen (June 13, 2018, 11:59 PM)

This is why I've stopped worrying and learned to tolerate (if not love) the bomb.

Deozaan · « **Reply #30 on:** February 27, 2019, 02:37 PM »

Brave has been my browser of choice on Android for a couple of years now. But it has been a little over a year (again) since I last tried out Brave on PC and I have to say I like the direction it is heading.

It is now definitely based on Chromium (maybe it always was, but in the past I wasn't sure about that), so all the Chrome extensions work for it. Also it has Private Windows (incognito mode) with Tor built-in for extra privacy.

I also really like the idea of Brave Rewards/BAT. It is (or will be) almost like a built-in Patreon, where I'm rewarded funds (BAT) for viewing ads and then I designate which sites/creators those funds are sent to on either a one-time only or a recurring (monthly) basis.

I haven't ever really used Brave long-term on my PC. I may have to re-evaluate that decision.

wraith808 · « **Reply #31 on:** February 27, 2019, 04:08 PM »

All of the chrome extensions work on it now? When last I checked, I wasn't able to use some of them, which is why I dropped it.

Deozaan · « **Reply #32 on:** February 27, 2019, 08:58 PM »

All of the chrome extensions work on it now? When last I checked, I wasn't able to use some of them, which is why I dropped it.
-wraith808 (February 27, 2019, 04:08 PM)

I haven't tried them all, but I assume that Chrome extensions work for Chromium-based browsers.

wraith808 · « **Reply #33 on:** February 27, 2019, 09:38 PM »

So I decided to dive in again, and have experienced a couple of oddities. One of my sites doesn't work in brave where it works fine in chrome. It's a web app, and when I click things, they just refresh the page instead of the control working. And I can't get the behavior to have middle-clicks close tabs. It works in Vivaldi and Chrome. It does seem speedier, but not sure that I'm going to be able to use it if these small things add up.

Deozaan · « **Reply #34 on:** February 27, 2019, 11:45 PM »

And I can't get the behavior to have middle-clicks close tabs.
-wraith808 (February 27, 2019, 09:38 PM)

I didn't know that was a thing, but I just tried it and it works for me.

Deozaan · « **Reply #35 on:** April 24, 2019, 04:25 PM »

Brave just launched their Brave Ads, so now you can get paid in BAT for watching Ads which respect your time and your privacy.

Starting today [April 24, 2019], users of Brave’s latest release of the desktop browser for macOS, Windows, and Linux can choose to view privacy-preserving Brave Ads by opting into Brave Rewards. These users will receive 70% of the ad revenue share as a reward for their attention, which they can auto-contribute to publishers under default settings. Brave’s platform is a new path toward a better Internet, where users can browse the web, earn rewards, and support their favorite content creators while preserving their privacy.

[...]

[Brave Ads are] Opt-in: Users who choose to see Brave Ads are presented with offers in the form of notifications as they browse the web, at a time that the browser finds appropriate and not disruptive. When users click to engage with these notifications, they’re presented with a full page ad in a new ad tab. Users can also customize how many ads they would like to see.

[...]

Brave Ads are launching today in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, and the U.K. More geographies will be available soon. Brave Ads will be integrated in Brave’s Android and iOS apps in the coming months.
-https://brave.com/brave-ads-launch/

EDIT: I was given the opportunity to view an ad for the first time about 10 minutes ago. Now the Brave Rewards dashboard shows my estimated earnings at 0.05 BAT (~$0.02 USD). I'm gonna be so rich!

Deozaan · « **Reply #36 on:** May 08, 2019, 03:52 PM »

In the ~2 weeks since enabling Brave Ads on my browser, I've clicked to see about 100 ads, earning me 5 BAT (~$2). This month, those 5 BAT will be designated to be contributed to various websites and YouTube creators' channels I visit, based on how much time I spend at each site.

If mouser would hurry up and verify DonationCoder to receive BAT contributions then this site would be the first of all the sites I've visited so far to be verified and actually receive the contributions designated for them. Otherwise they stay in my wallet. Or, in the case of the free BAT grant I received, the funds expire from my wallt and are given back to Brave to give out as grants to other Brave users.

Publishers must verify ownership of their properties with Brave in order to receive contributions from Brave users. If a publisher has not verified ownership, then a user’s contributions will be held in reserve inside the browser for 90 days. The browser routinely updates an internal list of all verified publishers to determine whether a property can receive contributions. At the end of the 90 day period, any contributions marked for unverified publishers will be released back to the wallet. No funds leave the browser except to go to verified creators.
-https://brave.com/faq/#unclaimed-funds

wraith808 · « **Reply #37 on:** May 08, 2019, 04:23 PM »

Yeah, I have DC set to get the auto donations, but it's unverified as you said.

mouser · « **Reply #38 on:** May 09, 2019, 02:37 AM »

Ok let me see..

mouser · « **Reply #39 on:** May 09, 2019, 02:52 AM »

I have verified a DonationCoder page for Brave Rewards. Should look something like this once it is updated:

Brave: A new browser with built-in adblock and payment solutions

Deozaan · « **Reply #40 on:** May 09, 2019, 10:35 AM »

I have verified a DonationCoder page for Brave Rewards.
-mouser (May 09, 2019, 02:52 AM)

Awesome!

mouser · « **Reply #41 on:** May 09, 2019, 11:54 AM »

Thank you for thinking of DC and encouraging me to create the page

wraith808 · « **Reply #42 on:** May 09, 2019, 02:00 PM »

If only they'd figure out what was wrong on my middle click on browser tabs, I'd use it full-time.

Deozaan · « **Reply #43 on:** May 11, 2019, 01:04 AM »

Woohoo!

Brave: A new browser with built-in adblock and payment solutions

mouser · « **Reply #44 on:** May 11, 2019, 01:05 AM »

fun!!

Deozaan · « **Reply #45 on:** June 05, 2019, 02:49 PM »

In the ~2 weeks since enabling Brave Ads on my browser, I've clicked to see about 100 ads, earning me 5 BAT (~$2).
-Deozaan (May 08, 2019, 03:52 PM)

In my first full month of using Brave Ads/Rewards I earned almost 30 BAT, which is close to $9.75 at current prices. Combine that with the fact that the minimum monthly automatic contribution per month is 20 BAT to the various websites I visit means that if I continue earning about this much BAT per month then I finally have a way to automatically contribute each month to sites I visit without having to manually pay from my own bank account to top up my BAT wallet.

It looks like Brave is finally starting to deliver on the initial promise(s) of BAT!

And it seems that about 80% of my monthly contribution is earmarked for DonationCoder.

wraith808 · « **Reply #46 on:** June 05, 2019, 03:08 PM »

I've been able to find out what my problem was (it was the fact that I had Muon still installed), so though there are a few hiccups, Brave is now my main browser. And I have 20 BAT for my ad earnings since that time. It took me a while to figure out that I needed to set it to only contribute to sites that were verified, so I still have 43 BAT in outstanding pledges. My contributions in addition to DC are to Brave, NPR, bleeping computer, and the friendica instance I'm on (which gets most of mine at 59%).

Curt · « **Reply #47 on:** June 05, 2019, 05:20 PM »

I have verified a DonationCoder page for Brave Rewards.
-mouser (May 09, 2019, 02:52 AM)

Sorry! Ads are not yet available in your region
-Brave Rewards

Deozaan · « **Reply #48 on:** June 05, 2019, 07:36 PM »

I just noticed DuckDuckGo is a verified website, so I sent them a little tip.

I'm surprised they weren't included in my auto-contribute, but I guess that's because of the way I configured auto-contribute to ignore sites I don't visit for longer than 1 minute.

oblivion · « **Reply #49 on:** June 07, 2019, 04:34 PM »

Well, I'd already discovered Vivaldi and am using it on my laptop, Waterfox on my desktop and, as a result of this thread, Brave on my phone. I also like the concepts, it definitely seems responsive and although I'm already dealing with ad blocking via Windscribe, the latter has a habit of unexpectedly going quietly away so Brave means that matters less.

A couple of days in so far so my opinions are subject to change